Lie-detector saves council £420,000 in benefit claims

The first council in the country to conduct trials of lie-detector tests for benefit claims has saved more than £420,000 in the first year.

The voice-risk analysis software can detect minute changes in a claimant's voice which indicate when they may be lying.

The technology is already used by the insurance industry to combat fraud and has been tested in Harrow since May last year, firstly for housing and council tax benefit claims and then also at Jobcentres.

So far, 1,559 claimants have been assessed using the software. Councillor Paul Osborn said: "We are very pleased it has been such a success - saving the taxpayer more than £400,000 during the past year and receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from claimants."

He said the council hoped to make the system more efficient and to extend the number of claimants put through it.

Mr Osborn said: "We have been doing some initial testing in other languages, such as Gujarati, and are planning to work with languages, such as Hindi, Farsi and Punjabi. This makes sense with a majority of claimants in Harrow speaking English as a second language."